First year donation patterns predict long-term commitment for first-time donors.

Background And Objectives: Converting first-time donors to become regular donors continues to be a challenge facing blood centres. We examined whether first-time donors with frequent return in the first 12 months were more likely to become regular donors.

Subjects And Methods: The donation histories of 179 409 community whole-blood donors, whose first-time donation in 1991 was negative on donor screening tests, were evaluated.

The donor notification process from the donor's perspective.

Background: Despite large numbers of blood donors being notified of abnormal infectious disease screening results, there has been little scientific study of the effects of this process.

Study Design And Methods: With a 28-item questionnaire, an anonymous mail survey was conducted of 4141 blood donors notified of 15 distinct categories of abnormal infectious disease screening and confirmatory test results.

Results: The survey had a 42 percent response rate, and 10 percent of the respondents did not recall being notified of their results.

Respiratory and urinary tract infections, arthritis, and asthma associated with HTLV-I and HTLV-II infection.

Human T-lymphotropic virus types I and II (HTLV-I and -II) cause myelopathy; HTLV-I, but not HTLV-II, causes adult T-cell leukemia. Whether HTLV-II is associated with other diseases is unknown. Using survival analysis, we studied medical history data from a prospective cohort of HTLV-I- and HTLV-II-infected and -uninfected blood donors, all HIV seronegative.

Behavioral and infectious disease risks in young blood donors: implications for recruitment.

Background: Recruitment of young donors is critical to expand the donor base and sustain the blood supply. Nevertheless, there is concern that younger blood donors may have a higher risk profile than their older counterparts.

Study Design And Methods: The prevalence of behavioral risks associated with transfusion-transmissible viral infections and the incidence of viral markers were compared between younger and older donors.

Pulmonary function testing in HTLV-I and HTLV-II infected humans: a cohort study.

Background: HTLV-I infection has been linked to lung pathology and HTLV-II has been associated with an increased incidence of pneumonia and acute bronchitis. However it is unknown whether HTLV-I or -II infection alters pulmonary function.

Methods: We performed pulmonary function testing on HTLV-I, HTLV-II and HTLV seronegative subjects from the HTLV outcomes study (HOST), including vital capacity (VC), forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1), and diffusing lung capacity for carbon monoxide (DLCO) corrected for hemoglobin and lung volume.